Corruption is rampant throughout the world. The scope
extends to developed and developing countries. The magnitude of
corruption, however, varies from country to country. Empirical research
shows that basically there are two causes of corruption namely: need and
greed. Whereas needs can be met by reviewing pay packages, no package
can take care of the greed which has no end. Perception of those who are
corrupt is very different. They think that what they receive as graft
does not fall within the domain of corruption. They consider the
receipts from corruption as their entitlement. Consequently their
appetite to collect money through corrupt practices continues to be
increasing to their personal benefits and to the detriment of the
society. Further moral deterioration continues and the image of the
country at home and abroad continues to be tarnished.

By and large, most of the ruling governments, backed
up by bureaucracy and other constituents of the government, continues to
harp on the theme that there is no corruption.

In the above backdrop, Transparency International
(TI) launched the first Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 1995.
Subsequently, TI continues to release CPI on annual basis. The latest
one released by TI is CPI 2003**.

CPIS 2003

Downloaded material from web** states that a CPI 2003
score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by
business people, academic and risk analysts and ranges between ten
(highly clean) and zero (highly corrupt). A total of 17 surveys were
used from 13 independent institutions and atleast three surveys were
required for a country to be included in the CPI. In this respect, a
Survey used refers to the number of surveys that assessed country's
performance. In the above CPIs index, 133 countries were included in the
CPI 2003 score. Using CPI which is a poll of polls, the minimum number
of surveys carried out were three and the maximum were seventeen. In the
year 2001, the survey was restricted to 91 countries and in 2002, this
number was 102. This number was 133 in year 2003.

A rating scale from 0 to 10 was used. The higher the
scale, the lesser is the perception about corruption. Inversely the
lower the scale, the higher is the perception about the level of
corruption. Based on research of the data released by TI, major findings
are as under:

1)

Finland was
the least corrupt country in the world. It obtained 9.7 out of 10.

2)

There were
six countries which included nine or above nine out of ten. This
included: Finland, Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden.

3)

Ninety Five
(95) countries out of 133 obtained a score of less than five.

4)

Eleven (11)
countries obtained less than two out of ten and were consequently in
higher corrupt nation bracket. These included: Indonesia, Kenya, Angola,
Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Georgia, Tajikistan, Myanmar, Paraguay, Haiti,
Nigeria and Bangladesh.

The following frequency table, presenting a
comparison of CPI 2001 and CPI 2002 compared to CPI 2003 has been
prepared:

Table No. 1CPI 2001 & CPI 2002 COMPARED TO CPI 2003

Group

CPI
2003

CPI
2002

CPI
2001

8.0 - 9.7

15

14

13

6.0 - 7.9

13

13

13

4.0 - 5.9

25

22

20

2.0 - 3.9

68

46

41

1.3 - 1.9

12

07

04

TOTAL

33

102

91

Source: Computed from data
downloaded from www.transparency.org

The average for 2003 is 3.8 and Pakistan CPI is 2.8.

5.

Out of a
total of 133 countries, the following table gives the position of 16
countries in three blocks. The data given below indicates categories of
countries where the corruption is the least, is moderate and is the
highest.

Table No. 2THE LEAST, MODERATE AND THE HIGHEST CORRUPT COUNTRIES

Country

Scale
(Maximum 10)

Block - I

1.

Finland

9.7

2.

Iceland

9.6

3.

Denmark

9.5

4.

New Zealand

9.5

5.

Singapore

9.4

6.

Sweden

9.3

Block - II

7.

Taiwan

5.7

8.

Italy

5.3

9.

Malaysia

5.2

10.

South Korea

4.3

11.

Brazil

3.9

Block
- III

12.

India

2.8

13.

Russia

2.7

14.

Pakistan

2.5

15.

Nigeria

1.4

16.

Bangladesh

1.3

Source: Computed from
data downloaded from www.transparency.org

PAKISTAN'S POSITION

CPI for the year 1999 ranked Pakistan as No. 3 — a
highly corrupt nation by TI's CPI 1999 index. The situation marginally
improved as TI's CPI 2000 ranked Pakistan as No. 5. The situation
further improved to rank 12 based on TI's CPI for 2001. The situation
greatly improved in TI's CPI for 2002 when Pakistan was ranked as 77.
Based on data released by TI through their Corruption Perceptions Index
(CPI) 2003, Pakistan ranked 93 with 2.5 score. Seven (7) surveys were
used and standard deviation was 0.9. We are still below the average and
have the challenge to go a long way to reduce the extent of corruption.
However, we are steadily moving towards lesser corruption as our rank is
improving. All the stake-holders must contribute towards lesser
corruption with passage of time. All the stake-holders must contribute
towards the noble cause of reducing corruption through transparency,
moral rearmament, contentment and enforcement of law as a crack down to
nab the corrupt segments. The job should be initiated on priority basis
and all institutions including National Accountability Bureau should
play their productive role to uproot the corruption.

The author is Principal, Hailey College of Banking
and Finance, Constituent College of the University of the Punjab,
Lahore.